€1.5M Project to Monitor Ireland’s Marine Health

A major €1.5 million marine research project, MariBiome, officially launches on Monday with funding from the Marine Institute.

The five-year initiative aims to revolutionise how Ireland monitors the health of its ocean ecosystems by developing advanced biological sensing tools, rapid environmental DNA (eDNA) tests, and integrated data systems.

Led by Professor Fiona Regan of the DCU Water Institute, the project brings together researchers from DCU, Queen’s University Belfast, Atlantic Technological University Sligo, and the University of Limerick.

It will create a new national baseline for marine biodiversity and develop autonomous sensing platforms to assess ecosystem health, including in Marine Protected Areas and bathing waters.

MariBiome will also recruit five PhD students to help deliver its scientific goals while building national expertise in marine genomics, sensor technology, and data science.

By 2030, the project is expected to provide a suite of tools and data to support sustainable marine management and policy in Ireland.

“Ireland’s marine environment is a national asset – culturally, economically, and ecologically. With MariBiome, we are investing in the science and technology needed to protect that asset for future generations. This project will give us the tools to monitor our seas in smarter, more sustainable ways and will help create a new generation of marine scientists equipped to carry that mission forward,” said Professor Regan.

The initiative is funded through the Government of Ireland’s Marine Research Programme.